So there’s these two middle aged dudes, Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (some dude from a sitcom they used to have). Jack is an ex-soap star who’s about to get married, Miles is a depressed middle school english teacher who can’t get his novel published and is obsessed with wine. Together they have to stop a criminal mastermind who is poisoning the wine supply in the San Fernando valley and turning wine drinkers into an army of zombies.
Actually I made that last part up but what it’s actually about is they go on a trip into wine country the last week before the wedding. The idea is for Miles to show Jack “a good time” which to him means going around tasting wine and showing off that you know how the grapes were grown and what year it is and stupid crap like that. I mean in this movie you got people talking on and on about Pino this and 1961 is peaking and all this shit, they might as well be talking backwards, you got no idea what these idiots are blabbing about. Except when they start talking about how fragile the grapes are or something, and it is obviously a parallel to their own emotional state or their dreams or something. But I’m sorry, metaphors are not a good enough excuse for that kind of talk. Anyway, it works for the movie because they are good characters. You are not supposed to think their wine talk is cool.
But Jack notices that Miles is depressed and he wants to help him, by getting him laid. They end up hanging out with a pair of female wine fanciers who they really like. Jack tells them that Miles’ novel is about to get published, and Miles doesn’t tell them that Jack’s getting married on Saturday.
So okay, it seems clear where the movie is going. You got the whole falling in love deal, along with the keeping a secret torment, the eventual revealing the truth misery, the begging for mercy humiliation and the sudden, exhilirating proving love and making up ending. And by the way this is an Alex Payne picture. This is the guy who did CITIZEN RUTH, ELECTION and ABOUT SCHMIDT and they don’t call him payne for nothin. He’s real observant and honest about the kind of things that make a dude feel miserable and uncomfortable. (more…)
No joke, I never saw SAVING PRIVATE RYAN before. I’ve never been big on war movies and I think back when it was a recent movie I was real cynical and suspicious of any type of flagwaving. I thought movies like this were just brainwashing kids to join up in case they needed to blow up Iraq again.
released July 27, 2001
